Holbein

1792 · 160199 — London: W. Bulmer and Co. Shakespeare Printing-Office 1792-1800. This magnificent work" - Holbein rendered by Bartolozzi First edition of this superlative folio about which the leading authorities are in full agreement: "in every way a splendid book" Abbey and "this magnificent work is surely the finest early example of English colour printing" Ray. This is a most handsome copy in contemporary red morocco. "During his second stay in England 1532-43 Hans Holbein made a series of drawings of sitters connected with the court of Henry VIII that ranks among his finest achievements. Most of these were discovered as a group pasted into an album in a bureau at Kensington Palace by Queen Caroline in 1728 and the majority are now in the Royal Collection Windsor" Oliver et al p. 168. The album had a chequered history passing through several royal and noble hands - Charles I swapped it for a single painting by Raphael - before finding its way into the celebrated collection of Thomas Howard 14th earl of Arundel who "amassed what stands as the first major British art collection" British Library. It then returned to royal ownership a reunion that was recorded in Alexander Browne's Ars Pictoria 1675: "this book has been long a Wanderer but is now most happily fallen into the King's Collection". It then lay undisturbed until Queen Caroline's discovery. Solicitous of artworks in the royal collections she had them removed from their binding individually framed and hung in her country residence of Richmond Lodge. A native of Florence Francesco Bartolozzi 1728-1815 had by the early 1760s established himself as one of the finest engravers in Italy. An invitation to London in 1764 led to his employment to make prints after drawings by Guercino which entered the Royal Collection. He became engraver to the king and was a founder member of the Royal Academy. His imprimatur on an engraving was in high demand and he established "a vogue for dotted prints or 'stipples' and this became his characteristic manner" ODNB. Extensive work for many of the leading London print-sellers followed for which he employed a large studio to cope with commissions. This led to accusations of shoddy workmanship about which Bartolozzi was very sensitive; and yet he continued to attract high-level commissions such as the present work the admirable presswork for which was by the best London printer of the day William Bulmer. It was published under the auspices of the antiquary John Chamberlaine Keeper of George III's drawings with biographical notices provided by Edmund Lodge. Dr Lucy Peltz Head of Collection Displays Tudor to Regency at the National Portrait Gallery notes a contemporary "patriotic fashion for collecting engraved portraits of illustrious figures" ODNB entry for Edmund Lodge. "Published in parts during the years 1792 to 1800. the book evidently had a very considerable success for the plates appear in several states" Abbey. The present copy includes hand-coloured plates on white paper pink paper and trimmed pink paper mounted to white sheets with a double-border in wash. The sitters include Anne Boleyn Edward VI Sir Thomas Eliot Catherine Howard Sir Thomas More Jane Seymour Henry Howard earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt. Folio 543 x 400 mm. With 84 colour-printed stipple engravings on 83 sheets all but four by Francesco Bartolozzi after Holbein on white or pink paper some on pink paper mounted on card. Contemporary red straight-grain morocco gilt spine with seven pairs of raised bands gilt lettered direct in second compartment and at foot each compartment filled with decorative blind tooling sides with intersecting gilt frames enclosing blind panels comprising interlocking drawer-handle tools and anthemion rolls 12-point corner rosettes gilt chain-link edge roll gilt rope-twist turn-ins drab bluish green surface-paper endpapers gilt edges. Binding professionally refurbished a few old abrasions to binding front leaves creased one mounted plate with repaired closed tear some foxing to plates on white paper a few captions shaved rear free endpaper sympathetically renewed. A handsome copy. Abbey Life 205 the plates accord with Abbey's states 2 3 and although not examined by him possibly 5; Lowndes I p. 405; Ray The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914 1991 19. Lois Oliver et al "New evidence towards an attribution to Holbein of a drawing in the Victoria and Albert Museum" The Burlington Magazine Vol. 148 No. 1236 March 2006. hardcover